 Kinship
 Kinship
 a network of relatives within which individuals possess certain mutual
rights and obligations.
 Rules of Descent: connect individuals w/ sets of kin because of known or presumed ancestry
 Descent Group: publicly recognized social entity requiring lineal descent from a particular real or mythical ancestor for membership.
 Systems of Kinship
 Bilateral Kinship
NOT a descent group affiliates people of close blood relatives through both sexes. relatives of father and mother equally important. ego centered kindred: persons relating to you by blood.
Only brothers and sisters can have same kindred. western societies and foraging societies
 Bilateral Kinship
 Kindred
 Unilineal groups
 trace kinship through one parent
 degrees of relation are traced "upward”
 4 systems
 Patrilineal
 both males and females affiliate kin through the father's side only
 transmitted only by sons to offspring
 Usually found where need to organize male labor
 Example: Traditional Chinese
 Matrilineal
 reckon kin of both genders through women only.
 usually share power with brothers
 usually found where women’s work important.
 example: Trobriand Islanders
Clans based on matrilineal decent
Clan leadership passed from sister to brother’s son